Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy. Written by Manashantii Saturday 12th March 2016

You must have experience as a client for at least two years minimum prior to studying the course and at least two years minimum during the study of the course. You must meet the professional standards of the psychological association and be registered with an association. you must have liability insurance in case you get sued by your client.

You must maintain patient confidentiality regarding the identity of the client, you can discuss the client’s problem only with a clinical psychotherapeutic supervisor but must careful not to reveal the client’s identity in any way. Supervision is minimum once a week for at least an hour.

To be a psychotherapist you need knowledge of mental illnesses. Be able to discern what mental condition a person has on meeting the person. You need excellent assessment skills, interviewing skills, questioning skills, and be able to write clinical case studies and essays. You must be an empathic listener with a great memory and be able to reflect, be loving and compassionate, yet be able to maintain extremely tight boundaries when necessary as most mentally ill people tend to breach boundaries. As a psychotherapist you need to be an excellent judge of character to be a psychotherapist for the reasons of the welfare of the patient and for your own safety. The psychotherapist listens about 95% of the psychotherapy time. Each therapy session is 50 minutes usually but some psychotherapy sessions are hourly depending on the method /approach the therapist is trained in.

The psychotherapist aim is to facilitate the client’s well being, healing by enabling the client to reflect and emote and also encourage the client’s emotional and social skills, to think and problem solve predominantly independently. Therapy is an opportunity for the client to learn about him or herself.

Psychotherapists work in medical clinics, dental surgery, surgeries, hospitals, psychiatric wards, prisons, army, with police and intelligence agencies, independently, in a religious setting or with children or managing people in the workplace.